Exploring employee psychological wellbeing through the SPAR 4 SLR framework

Employee psychological well-being is the overall condition that allows an employee to have positive mental health, resilience and job satisfaction, so that they can perform well, maintain positive relationships and continue to develop both personally and professionally. However, the extensive literature present in this field is still fragmented across various disciplines and methodologies. This paper aims to showcase methodological rigour and transparency through a systematic literature search. 105 peer-reviewed articles relevant to employee psychological well-being have been finalised for this review, using a SPAR 4 SLR (Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews) protocol. This review is a two-level analysis using the ADO-TCM (Antecedents, Decisions, Outcomes—Theories, Contexts, Methods) framework, where the TCM framework is used to map the theoretical support, and the ADO framework is used to analyse the antecedents and their influence on psychological well-being-related choices and outcomes. This provides a structured synthesis and integrative framework for the review. The findings of this study highlight inconsistencies in the operationalisation of psychological well-being constructs, limited attention to mediators, and lack of a multi-level theorisation. The study also presents a conceptual model summarising all the antecedents. This model can help future researchers with useful insights and some practical implications for academics, HR professionals and practitioners who seek to create sustainable organisational health.